Are they still recruiting Corrections Officers?

Hi,

I am new to this forum and was wondering if anyone could give me some info. Do you know if UK prison officers are still being recruited into the NZ Department of Corrections? Has anyone just been given a job or has just emigrated as such? I have contacted the various regions and am awaiting their replies, but just wondered in the meantime.

I know a number of officers out here from the UK and are all at Waikeria prison in the Waikato. Now don't qoute me please, but what i am hearing is they- corrections dept are not recruiting anymore officers from the UK. Reason for this is due to the officers being totally misled from the onset of the process to arriving. Now this means that officers were coming over and realising all the promises weren't there and so left after the 3 month period and took the PR status and found other work and obviously this was at the corrections dept's expense.

Now due to the feeling from both parties the recruiting campaign from the UK and elsewhere was stopped. As i say don't qoute me, as seeing what Angela has got to say regarding her friend. What i do knoiw is that they are really short staffed and should anybody who is in country and are British, South African etc fancy a crack at this career then they will be interested in hearing from these people, but you have to be here.

We have new neighbours - from Newcastle - arrived last week having been recruited as correction officers.

I asked them this question when I saw the thread. They said that they are no longer actively looking for staff as there are a number of NZ'ers coming through with the qualifications now and they have to give the jobs firstly to a NZ'er even if the British person has more qualifications.

They have been doing the job a number of years and have been lucky as they were offered the jobs last year before the change. They now expect people to already have NZ residency. They won't wait for it.

I am sure you will get a better response from Angelonthemove's friend.

Got a corrections officer with me now and he is saying that they will recruit from the UK, but you have to fund a trip out here for the interview process. They are no longer actively recruiting from the UK. He has said if you want you can contact him and he will help in anyway he can, and that goes for any other officers who see this thread. If you need the help i will PM you with his email addy.

I've been looking at this sort of role since I got my PR, they certainly seem to be looking for people for the new prisons. I applied to a few and got a response from Waikeria not so long back - which was nice as I wasn't expecting it.

As others have said, they do expect you to have the correct visa/permits before you apply but aside from that they didn't seem at all phased that I'm still in the UK.

Good Luck!

Beano

PS The one thing that did shock me about the job was the low wage - I appreciate I need to adjust my expectations (which I'm doing for my 'at the moment' career) but the wage floored me, especially as the pack didn't list any benefits.